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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Diane in the Evening 5-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:









Rightwing Superintendents Oppose Randi Moratorium

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/common-core-clash-aft-president-fires-back-at-state-ed-officials/2013/05/21/a93321e8-c245-11e2-8c3b-0b5e9247e8ca_story.html
Common Core clash: AFT president fires back at state ed officials
By Lyndsey Layton,
The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 21, 3:45 PM
The head of a major teachers union fired back Tuesday at state education officials who had dismissed her call for a moratorium on stakes associated with new standardized state tests in public schools.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the Chiefs for Change, a small group


Come to the Skinny Awards in NYC on June 18

If you are within driving distance of New York City, please come to the Skinny Awards.
I will be there, along with many other friends of public education.
The Skinny Awards are the opposite of the Broad Awards, which are given to urban districts and charter schools that raise test scores. The Skinny Awards recognize character, courage, valor, and integrity in support of sound education ideas.
Leonie Haimson is the genius behind the Skinny Awards.
Benefits go to Class Size Matters, which advocates for reduced class size, opposes invasion of student privacy, and supports teachers and public schools. Leonie runs Class Size Matters on something less than a shoestring.
Here is the announcement:
Please attend our Fifth annual “Skinny Awards” Class Size Matters fundraiser
And enjoy a four-course dinner with wine
When: Tuesday June 18 at 6 PM
Where: FAGIOLINI ON 40TH, 120 E. 40th St. (betw. Lexington and 3rd Ave.)
Purchase your tickets here.
Each year we give an award to the individuals who provide the real “Skinny” on NYC schools. Past recipients of the award include Diane Ravitch and Juan Gonzalez. This year, our “Skinny” award will go to two brilliant teacher/bloggers:
Arthur Goldstein, who writes the NYC Educator blog and is an ESL teacher
at Francis Lewis High School in Queens
Gary Rubinstein, who blogs at Teach for Us and is a math teacher
at Stuyvesant HS in lower Manhattan
This dinner is always a highlight of the year, with delicious food, good wine, and great company.
This year, it is especially important to attend and/or contribute to our work. As always, Class Size Matters relies on your donations to keep our organization going. We have continued to advocate for smaller classes and an end to school overcrowding, as class sizes swell throughout the country. We also have become leaders in the fight against high-stakes testing, privatization, and the violation of student privacy.
Nationally, we spearheaded the battle against the sharing of confidential student data with a corporation called inBloom Inc. inBloom Inc. plans to put children’s personal information on a vulnerable data cloud, and share it with private vendors without parental notification or consent.
For the last few months, the tabloids and corporate reform blogs have featured attacks against me personally, evidence of the prominent role that Class Size Matters plays in the debate over education policy. One of the best ways to show your support for our work is to contribute whatever you can to keep our organization alive.
If you believe that class size matters, and that it is important to keep our public schools and children’s personal information out of the hands of private corporations, please make tax-deductible contribution now to Class Size Matters and/or purchase a seat at our fundraiser dinner June 18 by clicking here or here:http://www.nycharities.org/events/EventLevels.aspx?ETID=6292 .
Please forward to others who care and hope to see you there, Leonie
Leonie Haimson
Executive Director
Class Size Matters
124 Waverly Pl.
New York, NY 10011
212-674-7320
leonie@classsizematters.org
http://www.classsizematters.org
http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson
Follow me on twitter @leoniehaimson
Make a tax-deductible contribution to Class Size Matters now!
Subscribe to Class Size Matters news by emailing classsizematters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe to NYC education news by emailing nyceducationnews-subscribe@yahoogroups.com




Nicholas Lemann Reviews Rhee Memoir

Nicholas Lemann has written a powerful review of Michelle Rhee’s memoir, in which she calls herself “radical.” She is indeed radical. She wants to tear down public education, a basic democratic institution. That is very radical.
As Lemann points out, Rhee has reduced all the problems of American education to the very existence of unions. This can’t offer much hope to the many states where unions are weak or nonexistent. Who should those states blame since they don’t have unions to scapegoat?
Lemann notes that Rhee loves to portray herself as a victim, a woman of courage who stands up fearlessly to the 


Teacher: The News from New Mexico

New Mexico is the state with an acting superintendent who previously worked for Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Remember, they love teachers. They just don’t respect them.
This teacher writes:
“Hey, in New Mexico we’re already being told that 50% of our evaluation will be student test scores. Then at our 


LISTEN TO DIANE RAVITCH 5-21-13 Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

mike simpson at Big Education Ape - 2 hours ago
Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: [image: Click on picture to Listen to Diane Ravitch] Better Links to Uri Treisman’s Talk at NCTM by dianerav From a reader: Diane’s link is to the mobile version, which didn’t work for me. Here’s a YouTube link: Popout and a link to the slides: http://www.nctm.org/conferences/content.aspx?id=36436#equity Tennessee Charters: The Truth Comes Out, with Excuses by dianerav Policymakers and the media in Tennessee thought that charters would outperform public schools. They would “save minority kids from failing publ... more »